Holiday Spirit
by Chirugal
Summary: “Every time you say you don’t like Christmas, an elf dies!” Can Abby get Gibbs into the holiday spirit? Friendship/family fic, one-shot, complete.


**Title**: Holiday Spirit  
**Rating**: G  
**Spoilers**: _Hiatus  
_**Summary**: "Every time you say you don't like Christmas, an elf dies!" Can Abby get Gibbs into the holiday spirit? Friendship/family fic, one-shot, complete.

**Author's Note**: I know… two Christmas fics in one year? What was I thinking? This one's a non-shippy one, though. Hope you like. :) And Merry Christmas!

* * *

"Hey, Gibbs!"

Abby's balanced precariously on her desk chair, attempting to position a strand of tinsel above the door to her office. As she registers my presence, her centre of gravity shifts, and I lunge forward to hold her chair steady before she tumbles to the floor.

Swaying, she grabs my shoulder as she regains her equilibrium. "Thanks."

Watching her hop off the chair, I ask, "Isn't it a little early for this?"

The entire lab is decked out with tinsel, stockings, trees – two of them – and sprigs of holly. This is far from Abby's first Christmas at the Navy Yard, but I'm always a little surprised that she'd go in for all the trimmings. Then again, she's one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever met, and when she does something, she goes all-out.

"A little early?" Abby says, seeming genuinely puzzled. "It's like a month until Christmas, Gibbs! Aren't you excited?"

"I _look_ excited, Abbs?" Amused, I arch an eyebrow at her.

She cocks her head to the side, as if analysing my mood. "Well, no. But you're Gibbs, y'know? I figured you'd have this _inner_ excitement rather than something you let people see. I mean, who doesn't love Christmas?"

"I don't." Her eyes widen at my admission, and she takes a step toward me, her eyes filled with genuine distress. "What, is that a crime?"

"Yes!" she tells me emphatically. "You have no Christmas spirit, Gibbs. You're… you're Scrooge!"

Shaking my head, I ask her, "What do you have for me?"

"Screw that, it can wait!" she says emphatically, dragging me to her desk chair and motioning for me to sit. Humouring her, I do, letting her get it out of her system now rather than bring it up every day for the rest of the month. "Why don't you like Christmas?"

I don't talk about that – the memory of Shannon and Kelly posing happily for photographs beside the Christmas tree, just two scant months from their deaths, isn't something I feel able to discuss with anyone. Abby included. "Too commercial. I don't see the point."

Abby looks up to the heavens, as though begging Santa Claus not to smite me down. "But, Gibbs… Every time you say you don't like Christmas, an elf dies!"

I stifle my smile, levelling my usual neutral gaze at her. "Think you have your fairytales mixed there, Abbs."

She perches on the desk next to me, grabbing a tiny model Christmas tree from its surface and examining it. "That's beside the point. What I mean is, Christmas is about more than card companies and store discounts in January. It's about church, and giving, and loving, and family."

Yeah – it is. Which is exactly the reason this holiday grates on me so much. "Got no family," I tell her, getting up from her chair and heading back out into her main lab. "Are you gonna get around to telling me what you have sometime today?"

"But you do have family!" she protests. "Okay, maybe not _family _family – but you have us! You're like the father figure, and Ducky's like the uncle. And Tony and Kate and McGee are the kids."

Every now and then, I have to admit the team almost feels like family. They may not be related to me, but they're the people who have become the most important to me. "Yeah? Where do you factor in?"

Grinning, she crosses to the computer and taps out a few commands. "Oh, I'm the crazy, eccentric cousin who turns up late cause she was out until four in the morning partying," she tells me, as if it's obvious. "Oh, and by the way, we're all going out for drinks on the twenty-second, and you're coming with us."

"You think so?"

She doesn't even turn around. "Oh, it's not a request. Your presence is mandatory, Gibbs. If you don't come I'm cancelling the whole thing, and then you'll be spoiling everybody's fun."

A few years ago, I'd have been irritated, but I've grown used to Abby and her madcap ways. "In that case, d'you think you could tell me what you have so we can get this case finished _before_ then?"

Victorious, she flashes me a triumphant smile. "Okay, this is what I found…"


End file.
